Infants who develop autism show distinct brain connectivity

The development of white matter tracts, the nerve bundles that join one brain region to another, is different in babies who go on to develop autism compared with those who do not, according to a new study.Researchers scanned the brains of infant siblings of children with autism — who have an increased risk of developing the disorder themselves — several times during their first two years of life. The so-called ‘baby sibs’ who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism at 24 months of age have distinct brain patterns at 6 months and abnormal neural development from 6 to 24 months, according to the study. The results were published 17 February in the American Journal of Psychiatry.“The story is that autism is an unfolding process, not something that happens in the third trimester and then is done,” says lead investigator Joseph Piven, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “We see the brain changing over time in a dynamic way.”Read more at...SFARI, February 2012.